In ‘Where Are You Really From,' Elaine Hsieh Chou stretches herself outside of satire

San Francisco Chronicle​

10 hours ago

Elaine Hsieh Chou loves to write messy, imperfect characters.
That's clear to anyone who read her 2022 debut novel, 'Disorientation,' a biting satire about academia, Asian fetishism and the many missteps people take when presenting themselves to the world.
For her second book, an edgy story collection called 'Where Are You Really From,' Chou goes one step further in showing readers her range through complex characters in scenarios that cross the lines of genre. In one story that blends elements of science fiction and horror, a sex tourist visits the Hong Kong of the future and finds himself testing the bounds of virtual reality. In another, a mail-order bride is quite literally shipped to the United States, packing peanuts and all, to skirt an immigration ban.
'People just tend to think of you as a writer based on your debut novel, so I was just called a satirist' after the publication of 'Disorientation,' she told the Chronicle in a recent interview. 'But the whole time, I was writing all these other stories in different genres that feed into the same concerns and obsessions.'
The result is a collection that surprises readers at every turn of the page. Chou, who grew up partly in the East Bay, draws readers into a diverse array of settings, from the normalcy of the California suburbs to an off-kilter version of Paris that offers a glimpse into an alternate reality.
As a writer, Chou makes it clear that she was never solely a satirist. After working concurrently on both manuscripts during her graduate studies at New York University, she sold both books together to Penguin Press in 2020.
'It was a gift to be able to read 'Where Are You Really From' on the heels of 'Disorientation' for the first time,' Chou's editor, Casey Denis, told the Chronicle. 'In this collection, she pushes humor, surrealism, anger and confusion all the way to the edge.'
While Denis acquired both books five years ago, 'Where Are You Really From' seems to meet the present in 2025 to an almost uncanny degree with its interest in futuristic themes and its handling of political subjects like immigration and xenophobia.
'The reason her fiction will always meet the moment in this way is because she stretches it just past what's comfortable,' Denis said. 'She's looking behind the walls, and she has an eye on what's coming. She isn't hiding or shrouding reality in any way, which makes it so brave.'
Chou said that when putting her second book together, she knew her stories weren't centered around a particular theme or subject.
'I made a lot of cuts and wrote new stories while asking myself what would cohere and make sense for the collection,' she said. 'Ultimately, so much of these stories are about someone's version of the truth based on their own hangups, fears and desires butting up against someone else's perspective of what happened.'
For example, well into the sex tourist story, 'Happy Endings,' Chou offers a critical perspective shift from the male client (who, laughably, considers himself morally upright) to the woman who is operating the VR technology in use: 'Some might call her actions a form of revenge, but Eden prefers the word consequence,' she writes. ''Revenge' is amateurish, melodramatic in its very conception, whereas her actions are no different from cleaning up a spill, ironing out a wrinkle, righting a book that's tipped over.'
Examining differing perspectives and perceptions of others has been a preoccupation in Chou's work for decades, said one of the author's earliest creative writing instructors, Kim O'Neil.
The author of 'Fever Dogs,' O'Neil first encountered Chou as one of her undergraduate students at UC Irvine. 'From the first story I read of hers through today, there's an astuteness and sensitivity she has to complications and how people self-present in the world,' O'Neil said.
Now a senior lecturer at University of Illinois Chicago, O'Neil said that she's excited to teach Chou's collection to her students, who are interested in cross-over genres like feminist horror and speculative fiction that surface in 'Where Are You Really From.'
Meanwhile, Chou is continuing to push the boundaries of her craft as a storyteller, expanding into the world of screenwriting, which she began teaching herself after turning in her first book.
'And when the writing is good, you're in a trance state. That's when the characters come alive on their own.'